The Home Office has made progress in recruiting ethnic minority staff despite a failure by the police to reach their targets on recruiting black and Asian officers.

Speaking on Tuesday, David Blunkett said that nearly one in three Home Office staff based in London and Croydon were from an ethnic minority background.

"The government has always made it clear that it wants the public sector to set the pace in the drive for race equality," he said.

"If the government is to speak seriously about race equality as a service provider and as a policy maker it must also demonstrate the principles of race equality as an employer, with workforces that reflect the ethnic diversity of the communities they serve.

"I am proud to announce excellent progress against our ambitious race employment targets. We have achieved considerable success in attaining appropriate representation from black and minority ethnic groups amongst the staff of the Home Office and its agencies."

Blunkett said that the Home Office, Immigration Service, Forensic Science Service, UK Passports Agency and the Probation Service had already exceeded their 2009 targets for representation of minority ethnic staff.

But he conceded that some areas could still show signs of improvement.

"There has been much achieved but work is required in some services. The Police Service have very narrowly missed their milestone - 3.5 percent of police service staff are from minority ethnic groups against a target of 3.6 percent for 2002," said the home secretary.

"However, the service has travelled a long way since the employment targets were introduced in 1999, and in three years has increased the number of minority ethnic officers by 33 per cent."

Blunkett also warned that more must be done to tackle racism throughout society as a whole.

"If we are to tackle the problems of racial discrimination in the 21st century we must recognise the new challenges in tackling race inequality and discrimination, and promoting social cohesion," he said.

"Seventy percent of Britain's ethnic minority population live in the 88 most deprived local authority areas.

"That means that basic issues of social class - jobs, housing and education - are crucial in the drive to achieve social justice and cohesion. Unless we tackle the poverty and disadvantage that is disproportionately experienced by ethnic minority communities, we will not achieve race equality.

"Of course, social and economic disadvantage don't explain the whole story. Prejudice and racism still exist and must also be faced and tackled head on.

"Inequality and discrimination are taking new, complex, often covert forms. Just as the forms of discrimination change, so must our methods for challenging them."